Dear Mr. Keillor:
My son recently graduated from college with a degree in communications
and is working part time for a radio station in Virginia. But he is
somewhat disheartened that his career is not going as fast as he would
like. I am his biggest fan and critic and I told him all things will
come in time, but I really think he needs to hear it from those who
have been in his shoes. Any suggestions?
Jan Hruska
Manassas, Virginia
Dear Jan, The young man should stay loose
and have his adventures and enjoy his life and not obsess about the
career. Radio is meant to be fun. While he enjoys it, he should be looking
toward the horizon and the advent of web-casting and all else that’s
coming toward us and if he sees a beautiful port, he should consider
jumping ship. I do think there’s a future in radio, though. The listeners
are constantly rearranging their lives and looking for amusement and
elucidation, and the newest new thing, and the young person who can
gratify them will do very, very well.
Mr. Keillor: I write because I live in New York
City, half a mile, maybe less, from the World Trade Center, or where
it once was. The world seems so sad, I have so much to say about it,
and nothing to say at all by now. I am exhausted by the sadness, by
the tragedy. I know that incredible things have come out of this tragedy
- the heroes, the love, the unity, the patriotism. I can even see how
in the distant future, this will become a time of rebirth, while remaining
a tragic reminder of how far hate, extremism, and evil can go. But,
Mr. Keillor, it seems so hard to go on. It seems so unjust. I know there
are people all over the world who live in far worse circumstances. I
don't know what to ask you for - advice, condolences, a cursory pat
on the arm and an "It'll be okay".
Cindy Hwang
New York
Cindy, It’ll take a long time to clear
this mess --- the obsessive recollection of those terrible moments,
the thought of what it was like in the buildings and the airliners,
the sadness for all the fatherless and motherless children, the sadness
for New York City. But of course we will go on, and somehow life will
be clarified by this. The catastrophe was a huge dose of reality dealt
out to a nation and people who’ve been dozing and drifting in the media
world of celebrities and entertainment and boom prosperity and triviality
on a vast scale. Everyone re-examines his life in the wake of this.
We live in a dangerous world in which this great open liberal-spirited
country is forever vulnerable. What we have here is terribly precious
and worth defending with all our hearts. This is a pretty fundamental
truth, but we lose sight of it and the catastrophe brought us back.
You who live downtown in Manhattan have to endure heart-wrenching reminders
of 9/11 and I just hope you can sense how deeply people all over American
were hit by this. I’ve been traveling around in the west and Midwest
and people are still stunned and grieving. I’ve been giving readings
and I never heard a silence so deep as the silence of the crowd during
the Q&A after the reading when someone asks about the attacks and Where
Do We Go From Here. I tell them what I know: life goes on and it’s beautiful
and 9/11 isn’t the End of Innocence and of All Things As We Knew Them.
It’s a horrible event that destroyed so much and illuminated so much
more.
Dear Mr. Keillor Here is something to think about during
this "resting time" from partisan politics, while we all pull together,
rethink our priorities, and combine our efforts to make America a safer
and better place: Stay away from discussing politics. It puts a little
tarnish on your sterling reputation and disappoints our anticipation
of the shows.
Respectfully,
Doris Markland
Doris, politics is part of grown-up life.
Introduce a resolution condemning terrorism and somebody will attach
an amendment to provide a big tax break to his brother- in-law. It’s
in our nature. National unity is a beautiful illusion. Unity is not
what America is about: our ancestors came here to get away from it,
the unity of the State Church and the King and the One True Way. But
like you, I also appreciate this thoughtful time in our country and
will tread carefully on thin ice.
Dear Garrison, I'm a New Yorker, and like everyone
in this city, am still reeling from the horrors of September 11. While
I'm grateful for their efforts, the President and the Mayor are not
what I need right now, or newscasters or political arguments. What I
need are reminders of what we hold precious in our hearts and what in
life really matters.
Sisina Tweed
Amen, Sisina. I was in the city the week of
9/11 and what people I knew needed to do was to get out of their apartments
and away from the TV and see their friends. Sit down to a meal with
the near and dear and talk about the tragedy and also about other things.
And of course the churches were packed for the next few Sundays.
Garrison,
In March, 1984, you spoke at the Westminister Forum in Minneapolis and
one of the questions from the audience was –“ In a time of trouble in
our world how can you try to be funny?” Your response was: "Caring about
the world does not begin with fear or morbidity but with fascination."
Anne Seltz
Anne, I don’t know how you can remember something
from so far back. I’m more impressed by that than by the sentence, which
seems well-intentioned but awkward and definitely a truism. The editor
in me wants to fix it up. “Caring” seems much too soft, for one thing.
But the sentiment is good. Passionate environmentalists are people who
love the natural world and are fascinated by the lives of birds and
bugs and plants, not people who primarily motivated by fear of apocalyptic
events.
Garrison:
I was wondering, now that you write on laptop, don't you miss the ancient
craft of putting pen to paper? I find the computer works well for technical
manuscripts, but have yet to compose a poem worthy of reading in Microsoft
Word.
Erik K.
St. Louis, M.D.
Dr. St. Louis, your suspicion of the computer
is well- founded. It tends to lead us into writing stuff that’s wordy
and flabby and tone-deaf. Pencil to paper is somehow better, when it
comes to style. But if you’re a busy, busy, busy person, you choose
the technology that eliminates re-typing and makes it possible for writing
to be quickly and easily disseminated. And you put pen to paper only
when you write letters to your friends.
Mr. Keillor:
Question: once in awhile would you please open your show with “Hello,
Love?” I listened yesterday evening to the rebroadcast of a 1985 show
and I like that theme.
Luanne Norwood
Dear Luanne, I will give this some thought.
We switched over to “Tishomingo Blues” back in ’89 and I prefer it as
an opening, but maybe it’d be fun to sneak in the old theme, just to
confuse the young people.
Dear Mr. Keillor, My family and I have recently
moved to Rochester, Minnesota, from Bloomington, Indiana. I am about
to give birth to a son. I know nothing about rearing a Minnesotan. Or
if to do so would be desirable. Any thoughts?
Jenny Gunter
Jenny, congratulations on the impending and
best wishes for a speedy delivery and a healthy child and great joy
in the Gunter house. Your son will grow up with all the normal loyalties,
to school and friends and (I hope) to city and state, but those loyalties
pale beside his love of his mom and dad. In fact, his love of city and
state is probably representative of his love for you, and he will come
to imagine your personal qualities as being typically Midwestern and
Minnesotanesque. He’ll grow up in your home, imitating you, and the
stereotypical Minnesota traits he may wind up skipping entirely. He
may loathe winter, despise fishing and hunting and football and Jell-O,
and not know lefse from a pair of corduroy pants. Nonetheless, we claim
him as one of ours.
Hi Garrison,
How come we are not hearing about your daughter any more? I really enjoyed
your descriptions of her. Is she too embarrassed?
Gladys Dean
Gladys, I left off talking about my sweet daughter
to spare her embarrassment and also because a lot of listeners said
they were tired of hearing me go on about her. We fathers are sensitive
about these things.
Garrison:
recently saw a tourist brochure for a town whose slogan was "Sparta
- not far from where you are". It sounded like the kind of slogan Lake
Wobegon might have. Has the LW Chamber of Commerce come up with anything
like this for their town?
E.H. Maxey
Sir: Our slogan is “Gateway to Central Minnesota”.
Garrison,
Is it tougher for radio actors to stay in character than it is for actors
on stage and screen? Do you try and build a mental image of say, Guy
Noir's office in the Acme Building when you're playing him? Do you focus
on the other players to keep from being distracted?
Pat Tearney
Pat, I’m not an actor so I wouldn’t know about
motivation. Mainly I just try to keep the pages of the script in order.
Sometimes I’m missing one and have to slide over and read off Sue Scott’s.
I try not to look at the others. The key to doing radio is listening
and everything else is a distraction.
Hello.
You used to work at the New Yorker lo these many years ago; what did
White and Thurber's office look like? What could you see from the window?
Did Thurber leave any drawings on the walls or desks?
Melinda R. Cordell
Melinda, I never saw White’s office, or Thurber’s.
They were long gone by the time I came on the scene. But the general
shabby tone of 25 West 43rd was the same. It looked like an English
department at an impoverished college. No decorator had ever laid hands
on the place. It had been designed by a process of natural accretion.
Thurber left some drawings on an office wall and when the magazine moved
up the street, that wall was carefully cut out and moved to the new
location, like an Egyptian antiquity.
